1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber cable, and more particularly to an optical fiber cable having a plurality of tubes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical fibers are commonly used in optical communication networks due to their advantages, such as high bandwidth capacity and small size. However, conventional optical fibers are extremely delicate and detrimentally affected by physical and environmental conditions, such as tensile stresses. In view of such physical limitations of optical fibers, efforts have been made to use a cable design that integrates a bundle of ducts each containing at least one optical fiber.
An optical fiber cable generally includes a plurality of strength members for improving the tensile strength of optical fibers and a plurality of water blocking members for preventing the intrusion of moisture into the optical fibers. Such optical fiber cables may have a loose tube structure with optical fibers contained in a plurality of tubes or a ribbon cable structure with a plurality of ribbon optical fibers.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,003 of Candido J. Arroyo et al., a loose tube optical fiber cable is disclosed. The cable of Arroyo et al. has a plurality of loose tubes each containing a plurality of optical fibers. Each loose tube incorporates a water blocking yarn or tape, instead of a gel-type filler, to prevent the water intrusion into the tube.
Because the loose tube optical fiber cable of Arroyo et al. does not use a gel-type water blocking member, it eliminates the need to wash the optical fibers stained with gel and thereby expedites the removal of an outer jacket.
However, in conventional cables described above, serious static electricity may be caused between optical fibers contained in a tube. The static electricity acts as a repulsive force between the optical fibers and lowers efficiency in a process of applying or removing the outer jacket.